Moment

[Indiana]

Best moment: this past fall, DD's senior season (high school). She was pitching in a random, early season game and was just having one of those games in which she was truly happy, just in the moment and having a ton of fun. She got a third strike called, and broke out into a huge grin. From then on, every time she got a called strike she smiled a huge, happy smile, just spontaneous - I don't think she knew that she was doing it, she was just really happy. More and more calls kept going her way and she just got happier and happier. It was a fun day and I was having the best time seeing my daughter having so much fun.

Worst moment: a year prior, when DD was in the circle and I could tell that something was wrong - her face was tight and she was stalling in between pitches and kept reaching down to rub her hand in the dirt. I could tell that she was in pain but didn't know how much or where. It turned out that she had two stress fractures and two bulging discs in her lower back. She had been reaching down to try to stretch out her back while masking her motion under the ruse of drying off her hand.

 

[Ken Krause]

So many good moments with two daughters playing. I often talk about the younger one because those memories are more fresh in my mind (even though it's been about 7 years since she last played). But this memory is with my older daughter.

I had coached her in travel ball for several years, but due to a number of circumstances her team didn't stay together. She still wanted to play so she tried out for and made a team in a neighboring town. She was a pitcher, and had done very well with us. Not the fastest around, but she had great control and could make the ball move.

On this new team, none of that other stuff mattered. They didn't think she threw hard enough, so she rarely got a chance to pitch. Then one day the team is at a tournament and I am in the stands. They're going to play a really good team, well-known at the time in the area, and one of the coaches comes by and tells the parents how we're just overmatched so don't expect too much. Since they had no hopes of winning the game they finally decide to give my daughter a start. Guess they didn't want to waste one of their "good" pitchers.

Well, she steps into the circle and is just lights out. I think she holds this hard-hitting team to one run through five innings. The coach of the other team is going ballistic when they're on offense, can't figure out why his team can't hit this pitcher who isn't throwing gas, and screaming like a madman. In the meantime, her team scratches together a couple of runs and is holding onto the lead.

Then our coach outsmarts himself. My daughter had shown no evidence of fatigue or problems, but he decides to put his "Ace" in anyway to ensure the victory. Of course she gets lit up. After giving up five or six runs they put my daughter back in. She's not quite as effective as before but still does better than the Ace. We lose.

After the game the coach says something about learning a lesson about not judging pitchers based on speed alone, but instead on whether they can get hitters out. Then he proceeded not to start her again for all the same reasons. Some people never learn. But I was incredibly proud of my daughter for stepping up not only against a top-notch team but also for succeeding when it was clear her own coaches had no faith in her and were basically just throwing her out as a sacrificial lamb.

 

[BobInMadison]

Hard to say what were the high points, and what were the low points.

DD #1 only played for 3 years. Were her high points finally making a LL all-star team? Her many stolen bases? Her 2 in-the-park HRs playing on her HS freshman team?

The low point was probably her last year playing softball. FALL: Her 14U rec ball team played C level travel teams, and the lost every game. Even worse when their star pitcher broke her hand in a TB scrimmage. One time DD #3, then 10U, played up on the 14U team, walked, got to second on a ground out, and stole third. Bases loaded and 2 out, DD #1 wanted to knock her sister in. Ground out, they were shut out. Her TB team played one tournament that fall (16U), and were probably the 3rd best team in the 16U-18U age group, even though their star pitcher had a broken hand (there were 2 girls on both teams). First day, they were in a pool with the 2 best teams, lost to both. Second day they were going to play the worst team in the bracket. All games rained out. HS ball in the spring they only won 2 games, lost the rest, and some of their losses were very close losses with questionable calls by the umpire. Very frustrating, and she never played again.

High point: first year 14U, in the spring. Before that spring, she had been good, but not great, at stealing bases. Her rec league team was playing a C level TB team. DD #1 had been in a terrible hitting slump. Then she gets up to bat, hits a slow grounder to third. DD #1 is really fast, and beat the throw. She kept on running. The 1B claimed DD #1 had turned, (I don't think so), so the 1B kept the ball in her hand to tag DD #1 out as DD #1 walked back to first. Suddenly, DD #1 turns on a dime, and runs to second. Barely beats the throw. Then a great steal of 3rd to show them it wasn't a fluke. The next batter hits a lazy grounder to third, but the 3B doesn't dare throw to first, else DD #1 would score. Runner to second next pitch. When the smoke cleared, they had scored 7 runs that inning, all started by DD #1's amazing base running. Game ended in a tie.

EDIT TO ADD: The rest of the time DD #1 played softball, she was a base-stealing whiz. The last time I saw her play was in a quad. She was 4x4 the first game, and 2x2 the second, and stole quite a few bases. The high point I mentioned above was the game when she went from being a good base-stealer to a great one.

 

[BobInMadison]

DD #3's turn. More recent stuff.

Low point: Her C level 12U TB team had been the girls on her 10U LL all-star team. The all-star team played 2 tournaments, and she got injured and couldn't play the second. They won the 1st tournament, partly due to some great play by DD #3.
Then, up to 12U. Competition was MUCH tougher. Got really pounded the first year, but by the end of the year DD #3 looked like she was settling in.
Second year 12U. DD #3 was pitching a lot better, except for one tournament where she only pitched decently one game, and that was against an A team, and they were run ruled anyway. Their second best pitcher had to miss that tournament, so DD #3 put more pressure on herself. Lost all the pool games.
Finally bracket play, double elimination. First game, DD #3 got out of the first inning on 3 pitches, and infield fly and a ground out. She even caught one herself, which would've been a base hit had she missed the catch. Then the wheels came off. The rest of the game her pitching was terrible. They replaced her with another pitcher, and the D was terrible. They lost that game, and also the next for double elimination. Skunked in a tournament where they could've gone deep.

High point: second to the last tournament of the year. A tournament with a weird mixture of what was theoretically an A team (that kept losing), some strong B teams, strong and weak C teams, and the host team which was really a rec team pretending to be a C team.
First game: the best pitching of her life. Pitched all 6 innings (time) for a 6-0 shutout against a good C team.
Second game: Pitched against the host team, 2 shutout innings, took her out for the relief pitcher. Run ruled after 4.
Third game, bracket play. Pitched against a very strong B team. Pitched even better than the first game. Probably the best pitching she ever did in 12U. 7-0 shutout of a really good B team.

We don't need to talk about the 4th game. She pitched well against one of the best B teams in the state, but the D wasn't good. Lost 7-5 to take a tie for 3rd in that tournament.

What was cool was her PC, and the PC's DD saw DD #3 in the second game of that tournament. Not her best pitching, but better than her PC expected. Oh, and remember in the previous post about the star player on DD #1's team who broke her hand? That is DD #3's PC's DD, now pitching for a local Juco. And the stolen base DD #3 had in a 14U game when DD #3 was only 10U? DD #3 was in the game to replace the girl with the broken hand...

 

[Terror Coach]

Dd1 high point would be In a regional game. First ab she hit a 3 run home run to give her team the lead. Next ab she hit a pitch off the fence for 2 rbi double and to once again give her team the lead. This time for good. Close 2nd would be playing varsity baseball her senior year. At 5 foot nothing she hung with the big boys and loved every minute of it.

Low point would be high school ball. She struggled with a shoulder injury all 4 years and had a softball coach who she didn't care for.

Dd2 is only 8. Her best moment was catching a flyball to centerfield when she was 7. I'm not sure if she caught the ball or the ball caught her. This happened in a 10u travel game and the ball was a bomb. Almost a year later she still talks about catching the ball that left a mark in her glove.

Low point came this fall. Championship game, down 1 run, with bases loaded, she struck out to end the game. Once we got to the car she cried and cried. Never seen her so upset.

 

[Rambler34]

I have seen my DD go through the highest levels of joy to the lowest levels of pain while playing. She has made a mistake at the wrong time and she has had a walk off single to win the USFA Fall World series (She wrote about this for a class). Two of the most memorable happened in the same game though.

The fall they won the WS was followed by a great spring. The full year of second year 10's the girls went close to 85-12-1. I can only remember two or three tourneys where they did not finish in the top 3. We took them to PCB for the USFA WS hoping to let them have fun but see some good competition before ASA Nationals. It was a horrible trip as far as the tourney went. We came home like whipped dogs. A couple of weeks later we head to Nationals and our normal team showed up. They were beating everyone and making every single play they needed to. They beat their biggest rival 1-0 in the winners bracket semis and faced the only team with a winning record against us in the winners bracket finals. We got up 5-0 but they came back to beat us 6-5.

The next morning the girls came out ready to play and fought the team we beat for the fall ws. The game made it to ITB with them as the home team. We scored one during our side and they tied it and eventually loaded the bases. We were able to get a couple of outs at the plate and then the next hitter popped a ball up in no mans land behind first. You pretty much knew it was over until my DD got there and made a diving catch on the dirt from right field. The photographer for the event happened to be right there and got a series of pics of the catch from the beginning to her getting up and being hugged by our 2B girl. I have never seen that expression of pure joy on her face.

An inning later and still tied the other team had a girl rope a monster double into the left center gap to win it. It may have been the fall from pure elation that made it so much worse but I have never seen that pain on my DD's face on the field. She was crushed.

Both are very memorable for different reasons. I look back and see the passion my little girl had for the game that she still carries with her.

 

[Nsanesoftball]

DD top moment was not on the field but in the words from her her very first SB coach. When DD started T-ball when she was 5 she had an older gentleman as her coach and his son as his assistant, they asked me to coach with them. DD played for this gentleman for many years. When she was 8 this coach started an all-star travel team of local girls my DD went to school with. When they were 10 they wont the Texas East LL state title. it was around this time that DD wanted to start catching, the coach was against this as DD is left handed (he stated lefties cant be catchers). DD still caught for her LL teams for many years. When she was 13 she made the decision to leave the all-star travel team because another team wanted her to catch for them (this meant she was walking away from her friends she had played with her whole career). When she was a freshman the HS coach found out she could catch and started her there for JV. During her sophomore season the varsity coach brought her up to varsity for the playoffs, sat the bench never got in a game but they made the final 4 for state). Junior year she was the backup varsity catcher that went back to state and won the title. This year she is the starting catcher her senior year and will be signing her National Letter of Intent to play college softball as a catcher on April 13th. Now you may be wondering why i said her top moment wasn't on the field but in the words from her first SB coach, well (this coach's grad daughter is a varsity pitcher for our team so we have been around each other since the girls were 5) a couple of weeks ago this coach comes up to DD, DW, and I and says one of his biggest regrets of coaching (coached for 35years) was not seeing the potential in DD and he should have let her catch all those years ago. DD says she owes everything to this coach and asked him the other day to please make sure he shows up when she signs her NLI.

 

[HoweMan]

not the highest, but the proudest for me: first year 10U, my DD is the catcher, she was only 8. Playing in our home town tourney against a neighboring town. One of their batters threw her bat into my DD after a hard foul. this shook my DD up a little bit so Blue gave her a minute to collect herself. well the other batter was very upset that she hurt my DD, in fact was crying herself, not wanting to come back to finish her at bat. Once the batter returned, my DD extended her hand to the batter to shake her hand and let her know there was no hard feelings. Can't remember if we won or lost, but EVERYONE on both teams was touched by that and mentioned so after the game. I will remember that for as long as I can remember things

 

[RetiredCoach]

Both of my DDs have many high points and, of course, low points. So, I will share with you my best softball moment. It was my 54th birthday and it just so happened to be that my oldest DD was pitching for the school sophomore team adjacent to the field where my youngest DD was pitching for the school freshman team. I was able to go back and forth between the two games watching both of my DDs put on excellent pitching performances. Net result, two victories for the school team and a birthday present to dad that I think will never be excelled!!!